Looking for the Pivot

I want to be hopeful.

I don’t want to be a sloppy nationalist who thinks that the extent of my national duty is to boo the American National Anthem at a hockey game, or to say “Elbows Up!” or to get mad at Wayne Gretzky because he decided not to piss on Donald Trump.

I’m trying to sidestep the danger of catching the Canadian mind virus, known as T. Derangement Syndrome. Yes, this guy Trump is messy, he’s not too smart, he’s literally a d**k, but he has tapped into a strong desire for change and he’s acting to do something about it. The fact that he has gathered the other necessary d**ks around him is a mega wake-up call for the world.

We can’t think the same anymore. Canadian politics and the Canadian mindset must change. Part of it is recognizing the sloppy, lazy nationalism that has come to be the normal way of Canadian leadership. The other part is to figure out how to get through the thick skulls of our elected leaders, to say, “For god’s sake, read the room!”

Our political landscape continues to support this inherent weakness. Our political leaders are used to announcing things and talking like we’ve got some wonderful ideal plan to make Canadians better off, or safer, or help them buy a home, or get a better job, or get cheaper groceries.

Remember Justin Trudeau saying “Canada is back” and in retrospect consider it as the first sip of the koolaid.

Remember Trudeau’s glib explanation for the number of women in his cabinet: “Because it’s 2015.”

Remember this one: “We’re going to plant 2 billion trees.”

Whatever. The Trudeau era has shown itself, to me, to be an era of inflating an empty balloon which has now popped.

I also like the term nothingburger.

In general, none of the great talk comes to fruition. None of it results in progressive change of policy. None of it fixes glaring problems. None of it saves money or avoids waste. A couple of deck chairs get moved as the Titanic continues to take on water. Meanwhile, what goes on behind the scenes is a disaster of mismanagement, which they all see, but they never fix.

A few of us, with help from independent journalists, are having our eyes opened. Alas, so few.

The recent provincial election

Pretend Doug Ford is a used car salesman. Last week, when Ontario held an election, Doug Ford was the salesman. We came onto the lot to check out what he was selling.

Doug Ford the car salesman would have said, “She runs like a dream. This car, she’s a beauty; she’s the best one on the lot. Sure you can give the tires a good kick. We’ve put a lot of money into those new tires. No need to look under the hood, though.”

Doug Ford, Ontario’s now-fourth-term premier, did this last week. He made sure we didn’t look under the hood. He got himself re-elected to a majority government two years ahead of schedule, under the guise of “needing a mandate to stand up to Trump”.

I know that Ford’s all sizzle and no steak. He really isn’t working to fix the looming structural problems of our provincial health care. He ignores the disaster in education funding. But wow, he’s gonna build a tunnel under the 401 and make a million jobs for Ontarians and bring prosperity back.

Now he’s blustering about shutting hydro power to some border states because “I’m tough and I’m standing up for Canada”.

Words, words, words.

Governing is complex. Ninety-nine percent of it happens behind the scenes.

What I want to know is, what is really happening to bring prosperity and safety back? What policies are being crafted? What actual problems are being solved in the various silos of bureaucracy, especially in those of the public service?

Will we ever get these details unpacked?

The devil is in those details my friends.

In the Ontario election debate Marit Stiles of the NDP and Bonnie Crombie of the Liberals tried their best to attack the doofus faced incumbent, but the real problem was that, to me, it didn’t look like they were prepared to manage the province. Neither leader had a disruptive, convincing alternative strategy. They didn’t display visible, tangible, evidence that they have a plan that can be executed.

Would you, as leader and premier, be able to wrestle these policy and management challenges to the mat, and win? That is the question.

Governance after the election is complex, difficult, highly regulated management. It’s the whole thing. It’s the whole point. And still, the leaders seem to conspire to keep it invisible. Smoke and mirrors.

Ontarians, apparently, are happy to continue on with a guy who appears on the news regularly, and talks a big talk about “the working folks and families of Ontario,” while our health care and education continue to suck.

The only exception was Michael Schreiner, Green Party leader, who spoke intelligibly about how he would make changes. He didn’t attack the other leaders. He showed evidence of his strong principled stance and his ability to make and execute a different type of plan, with new policies. It was about as effective as a whisper into the wind. Our video screens did their thing, and the tide of votes flowed overwhelmingly in favor of the incumbent.

What do we have to change to make the much-needed pivot?

The federal Liberal leadership race

Yesterday at the federal Liberal leadership convention Mark Carney cake-walked into a powerful 86% first place win. And he did this without having a speck of experience in politics. But wow—he’s the man for the job because he is a talented, smart, capable manager of … big stuff.

Carney has lots of experience speaking from podiums for vested-interest business groups and political/policy think tanks. He’s the expert guy in the suit who gets up to address the room full of other experts. To round out his image, Carney has been a volunteer board member of various philanthropic and environmental not-for-profits.

Of course he would. How else would he be able to pass himself off as one of the good guys?

When Carney gave his victory speech at the Liberal Convention last night, he quickly announced that the proposed carbon tax increase would not happen, and that he would soon be cancelling the consumer carbon tax. Applause.

Will we ever be able to get past the hypocrisy?

Carney’s hypocrisy here is plain.

Allow me to rephrase Carney’s victory proclamation, as heard by a Liberal at the convention. “Look at me now, see?— I’m the guy who looks out for the regular people. I know the carbon tax costs people a lot of money. That’s why I’ve changed my mind on something that I spent years designing and promoting as a banking leader. Now that I’m supposed to get regular people to vote for me, I’ll never admit that the carbon tax was a good idea. I’ll change my story and say that it was poorly implemented.” Now for the whispered part. “What I will actually do is keep the carbon tax on Canadian heavy industry. I still don’t give a flying f**k about what costs Canadians have to bear.”

See?

Allow me to be slightly more facetious for a moment:

I, Mark Carney, think I can play the game of political leadership as good as any of my peers. Thanks for welcoming me into your club. I can make great announcements, and sound wonderfully smart and experienced. Now that I’m elected I will eventually f**k off and do other shit that will make my fellow politicians get re-elected. Let them, the public, eat cake.

Can you sense my cynicism yet?

This will not get us anywhere

Hey Mark Carney, buddy, you are not going to implement any of the drastic, rapid change that is needed at this hour. You have no clue, and zero resolve. You are not the international statesman who can rally your fellow Canadians and speak to the issues of the present day. You will get speeches written and you will continue to sound like the smart guy in the room, the expert at the podium. Maybe you will become known as Carnocchio, and just like Pinocchio who wanted to become a real boy, you will be stuck forever in your wooden delivery, your lies as plain as the nose on your face, and your leadership style devoid of any visible or genuine emotion, compassion, empathy, or presence. You are going to stay the same, and you are going to keep us all where we’ve been for the past ten years, except for your newly bolstered resume now including—“Prime Minister of Canada.”

Seems selfish, doesn’t it?

And my greatest fear, Mark Carney, is that you will be inspired to campaign against Pierre Poilievre very soon in the upcoming federal election, and Canadians will think you’re good enough.

And we’ll have to put up with Carnocchio for the next four years while our nation withers away.

Please, someone, make it stop.